Tag: carleton

The Dutchmen's Shoes - the price of the RPI / Union matchup every year.

What school makes your blood boil? When I was in high school (DeLaSalle in Minneapolis) we played a certain private school (Minnehaha Academy) in everything. And beating them was the most important thing in the world. We could be 0-6 on the season in football, soccer, basketball, baseball, volleyball, whatever sport and we’d have a 50-50 shot to beat them.

This weekend Saint John’s University faces the University of Saint Thomas in Collegeville, Minnesota. Big game. But just how big is it, exactly?

For the first time (that I know of) St. Thomas has a higher ranking than St. John’s.

The MIAC attendance record for a football game is 13,107 – set on the day of SJU’s head coach John Gagliardi’s 409th career victory – passing Eddie Robinson on the all-time list – November 8, 2003. Last year’s attendance was announced at 12,903. In an email from SJU the crowd is expected to be approximately 15,000.

5) Speaking of T-shirts, do you remember that one for the Tommie-Johnnie football game in 1987 that said… (CENSORED)… or the one from the 2000 game that said (CENSORED)… Last fall’s one was pretty good, too, the one with the picture of (CENSORED) that read (CENSORED).

Gene’s a funny guy.

But I don’t want this to be all about the Johnnie/Tommie game this weekend. I’ve been doing some research and there are some fairly important, big rivalries around Division III (on Wikipedia there are 45 listed):

The Dutchmen’s Shoes (RPI / Union) – October 30

Monon Bell (DePauw / Wabash) – November 13

Biggest Little Game in America (Amherst / Williams) – November 13

Cortaca Jug (Ithaca / Cortland) – November 13

Cereal Bowl (Carleton / St. Olaf) – October 16

And many others.

The amazing piece is if you sort the list on Wikipedia, 11 of the 45 rivalries have been going on since the 19th century: The Amherst/Williams rivalry being the oldest in Div III, starting in 1884 (bested by Harvard/Yale and Lafayette/Lehigh in Division I).

The Battle for the Shoes – Occidental / Whittier – October 2

From Occidental College’s website:
Since 1946 the Poets and Tigers have played for a pair of bronzed cleats, worn by 1940 Whittier graduate Myron Claxton, in a rivalry game that has grown to be called the “Battle for the Shoes”.

On the Thursday evening prior to the scheduled meeting of the teams in 1939, members of the Occidental football team stole the All-American running backs shoes from the locker room, forcing Claxton to play in his work boots. Even so, Claxton led the Poets to a 36-0 victory as they went on to win the SCIAC title that year.

Following the game Claxton, who was the final draft pick of the Giants in the 1940 NFL draft, went over to the Oxy sideline and retrieved his shoes, “bringing them home”. Seven years later members of the Franklin Society, which Claxton was a member, had the shoes bronzed and the teams have played for the coveted “Shoes” trophy ever since.

Occidental and Whittier have faced each other an impressive 102 times, and since the introduction of the trophy they are knotted up at 33-33. Oxy holds the advantage historically 52-48-2.

The Drum – Occidental / Pomona-Pitzer – October 30The third-oldest rivalry on the west coast, this dates back to 1895. They have played for The Drum since 1941, after the alumni associations of each school came up with the idea. Oxy holds this advantage 60-48-3.

Monon Bell – DePauw / Wabash – November 13
The third-oldest rivalry in the Midwest, this one dates back to 1890. I cannot do this game justice. Because it is held on the final day of the season it hasn’t been one I’ve been able to get to in years past. It’s only 10 hours from Minneapolis, maybe this is the year I go. Who wants to come with? Wabash leads 54-53-9

Carleton walks with the Goat after defeating St. Olaf in 2008. Photo by Pat Coleman, D3football.com

Cereal Bowl – the Battle for the goat – Carleton / St. Olaf – October 16
I won’t try to rephrase anything that Pat Coleman wrote in 2008 about this cross-town battle between liberal arts colleges in Northfield, Minn. This year the game is scheduled to be held in Laird Stadium, which only in the last few days has begun to be relieved of water from the flooding Cannon River. Will it be moved to St. Olaf or played at Northfield H.S. (as Carleton’s homecoming will be played this weekend)? Time will tell.
This match-up is stranger than it looks, too, as they played the only NCAA-sanctioned football game in metric in 1977 (the Oles won that game 43-0). St. Olaf leads the series 46-42-1.

Coe vs Cornell – November 13
While they don’t play for a trophy, or a big-title game, this match-up is the oldest west of the Mississippi River, dating back to 1891. There’s some debate over who won their 1902 game, so it’s either Coe’s lead at 65-59-4 or 64-60-4 65-50-4 or 64-51-4. Read more in a 1999 D3football.com Around the Nation column.

What are your rivalries all about? We know there are more, I can only write so much before I cannot keep my notes straight so I ask that you include your own rivalries, or simply expand on mine.

This was originally published on D3football.com on Sunday, September 26, 2010.

By Ryan Colemand3photography.com

Laird Stadium stood under feet of water on Saturday evening, casting the location of this upcoming Saturday’s home game against Augsburg into doubt.
Photo by Ryan Coleman, d3photography.com

As the sun rose over Carleton’s picturesque campus in Northfield, Minn., Friday morning Laird Stadium was dry. But as the hours progressed, the rising water of the Cannon River spun the tables on the school’s 7,500-seat football stadium.

At 7 a.m. Carleton officials would have told you that they could host a football game, if scheduled to, on Saturday afternoon. But by 9 a.m. an email went out to players on the football team to come down and empty out the locker room. An hour later there was a foot-and-a-half of water on the field, and it was rising fast.

Southern Minnesota was hit with a monsoon of storms, many local meteorologists likened its arrival as to many winter storms that often hit the state. But this occurred during the warm month of September, not December or January as they often do. If this storm had struck the region in the winter months it could have packed a crippling amount of snow ranging from 30 inches in the Twin Cities to over 100 inches in Amboy, Minn., midway between Mankato (home to Bethany Lutheran and nearby to Gustavus Adolphus and Martin Luther) and Interstate 90.

But the 73-year old Laird Stadium isn’t the only victim to Carleton athletics. Next to the field is the West Gym, home to basketball, volleyball and swimming. By 4 p.m. Saturday the basement had “about 3.5 feet of water,” said Sports Information Director Dave Pape. “I didn’t have hip-waders on, so that’s just an estimate.”

The sump pumps were shut off as they just were unable to keep up with the amount of water coming in through the foundation. The basement, a full level below the gymnasium floor, has been used primarily for storage of equipment and is the home to the filter and pumps for the natatorium. Pape added that there may have been some loss of historical archives, but he was not sure to what extent.

Student-athletes had been helping take as much out as they could that was not already lost to the rising water. He is confident that the water will not rise high enough to reach the gymnasium floor — a situation, should it occur, could very well be devastating to Carleton hosting any more home events in volleyball or basketball.

And past the gym, a little further upstream is the football and men’s soccer practice field. In the middle of that field sits a regulation soccer goal, with all but the last foot of the eight-foot tall frame underwater. (Soccer is played on a field across campus, on higher ground.)

Carleton’s practice field is on the other side of the gymnasium, on lower ground.
Photo by Ryan Coleman, d3photography.com

Three bridges that directly connect the campus to the western part of town, where fellow Division III school St. Olaf sits on much higher ground, have been closed by the National Guard. The city has declared a state of emergency and Division Street (which runs along the side of Laird Stadium, the West Gym and the practice field) is open only to campus traffic and is closed beyond the library parking lot. Laird also has 22 dorm rooms nearby, with 30 students living in them. They have been evacuated, although their living arrangements were unclear.

Former athletic director Leon Lunder, a Northfield resident since 1950, told Pape that he has never seen water reach Laird Stadium before.

But what does this leave Carleton with? They have their homecoming scheduled next Saturday against Augsburg at 1 p.m.. School president Steven Poskanzer is insistent that Laird Stadium will host homecoming on time but athletic director Gerald Young told WCCO-TV on Saturday that may not happen.

“I think it’s a long shot. That’s why at the beginning of the week we are going to look at what some of the other options of what we have to do. We would love to get out here for homecoming, but I think it’s a real long shot.”

They have a few options, although nothing is confirmed and may not be for many days: They could play at Laird, except it will take days for the water to subside, the field to dry and the facility to be approved for use after it has dried out. St. Olaf is hosting Bethel and does not have lights.

Northfield High School’s field has lights and, according to an email from Carleton, does not have any events scheduled for it on Sept. 25.